U.S. Pat. No. 4,213,283 issued July 22, 1980 and owned by the assignee of this invention discloses a machine for applying carriers of the top gripping type to a plurality of bottles. Carriers manipulated by the machine of U.S. Pat. No. 4,213,283 are of the ordinary top gripping type and are not provided with downwardly depending side and end walls which envelop the sides of the packaged bottles.